How to deal with the modern CIO’s three biggest challenges

The role of the CIO is changing. As technology becomes ever more central to the operation of every business, the responsibilities of the CIO can include everything from digital transformation to the carbon footprints of data centres. Today’s CIO takes responsibility for an ever-growing set of workstreams, and is increasingly central to company success. Lenovo’s 2023 Global Study of CIOs found that nine out of ten CIOs believe they have more responsibilities than ever before, and that 84% of IT leaders now believe that they contribute more to company success than other board-level leaders. 

This comes at a cost though. The range of responsibilities on the plates of today’s CIOs is huge: CIOS are expected to make decisions on everything from diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) (42%) to business reporting and data analytics (56%). One of the great fears these multi-taskers deal with is that the investment they need to innovate will ‘dry up’, with more than four in five (83%) worried that their budgets will run dry. 

Today’s CIO deals with three particularly thorny issues: the evolving workplace, sustainability, and artificial intelligence. Dealing with these is a constant challenge, but choosing the right tech investments can help CIOs tackle these concerns.

The changing workplace

Technology is woven into every part of the modern workplace, functioning like a nervous system which joins together corporate strategy, operations, finance and innovation. This in turn loads more challenges onto CIOs, who are grappling with recruitment and retention (59%), managing a remote workforce (59%), and diversity, equity, and inclusion (55%). The technology environment is also changing, with employees now using two devices on average, combined with a sharp increase in ‘bring your own device’ usage.

For IT leaders, technology can help to bring simplicity to this shifting landscape. Optimising endpoints using one centralised platform helps to bring order to the chaos. This means that IT teams can focus on business-critical tasks, with end users enjoying a better experience, optimised by AI. 

Meanwhile, ‘as-a-service’ models offer the flexibility and simplicity to empower teams with the technology they need, in a simple, scalable pay-as-you-go model. As-a-service models allow businesses to stay up to date with the latest and greatest technology, meaning that employees are never held back by older devices, and that less secure devices are not as likely to be used in the workplace. Lenovo’s research found that as-a-service options were highly popular with CIOs, with 92% saying they would consider adding new offerings over the next two years. This provides them with the flexibility to deploy hardware and software with ease, eliminating bottlenecks and freeing up teams to innovate rapidly and supercharge business strategy.

Addressing AI

The current boom in generative AI has sparked a level of excitement around technology not seen since the dawn of the smartphone era. For CIOs, this poses further challenges: there is high expectation for organisations to engage proactively with AI, and for the technology to deliver business results, fast. The demand to engage with this emerging technology is very real, with 43% of CIOs saying they felt ‘urgent pressure’ to deal with AI.

But it’s not simply a case of buying solutions and sitting back and waiting for results: AI has to be used effectively. Edge computing technology helps to bring AI to the data source and will be hugely important for any organisations hoping to reap the benefits through cutting-edge applications such as virtual assistants, generative AI and computer vision. With edge computing, organisations can gain AI-powered insights right where data is created, which can be immediately used to improve outcomes across store aisles, manufacturing floors, hospital rooms and service desks all over the world. Edge AI computing can also process thousands of data points in real-time to gain the insights required to make decisions. In customer service, for instance, it can analyse data to make live recommendations for personalised products and services, or identify issues before they become pain points, enhancing the overall experience.

Technology that delivers data centre-like computing to the edge will be crucial to delivering improved experiences in industries from tourism to retail, as well as improved emergency response and public safety. 

Sustainable working

In previous decades, sustainability has not fallen within the traditional purview of IT leadership. But with increasing attention on the issues such as e-waste, and the emissions associated with data centres, thinking about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is yet another responsibility on the shoulders of today’s CIOs. 

With data centres responsible for up to 1.5% of global electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency, it’s critical that CIOs engage with technologies such as water cooling to increase efficiency and reduce electricity demand. Modern workloads mean that older air cooling technologies now struggle to keep up while becoming very expensive. Liquid cooling technologies will be an important factor in responsible computing going forward, and will also enable the sustainable supercomputers which will be crucial to tackling the challenges of climate change. 

Decision-makers in IT must also be bold and move beyond the ‘make, use, destroy’ of the linear economy to the ‘design, use, return’ approach of the circular economy. The world produces 50 million tonnes of e-waste every year, and just a fifth of this is recycled. Asset recovery services (ARS) will be key to this, helping to find the most efficient and clean ways to deal with hardware at the end of its service life, whether that’s using the parts in manufacturing, refurbishing, reusing or environmentally friendly scrappage. 

For CIOs grappling with the challenges of sustainability, the flexibility of ‘device as a service’ models, where devices are recycled or repurposed at the end of their service life, can also help switch to more efficient, environmentally friendly hardware without up-front capital outlay. 

Balancing burdens

Today’s CIO handles a very different role, shouldering a range of responsibilities which would have been unimaginable a decade ago, with important decisions around everything from diversity to sustainability. With CIOs more central to the broader organisation’s success, and taking on an ever-increasing burden of decision-making, the role of the CIO can sometimes feel like a lonely struggle. Thankfully, the right tech choices can help CIOs untangle problems from diversity to the changing workplace, freeing them to make the big decisions they need to boost the business as a whole.